1. “The Most Dangerous Game” – Theme, Diction, Character, Plot, and Irony
Literary Terms Set I
“The Most Dangerous Game” – Theme, Diction, Character, Plot, and Irony

2. The moral or message of a story.
Theme
The moral or message of a story.

3. Denotation: The dictionary or literal meaning of a word.
DICTION TERMS
Denotation: The dictionary or literal meaning of a word.

4. DICTION TERMS Connotation: The meaning derived from a word’s context.
Connotative meanings can be positive, negative, or neutral.
To remember, think: D as in Denotation stands for DICTIONARY definition. C as in Connotation stands for the definition derived from the word’s CONTEXT in the passage.

5. CHARACTER TERMs
CHARACTERS: The people/actors in a story.

6. CHARACTER TERMs
PROTAGONIST: The main character of the story, around whom the plot revolves.
Note: The protagonist is not always the “good guy”

7. CHARACTER TERMs
ANTAGONIST: The person, place, or thing in conflict with the protagonist.

8. POINT-OF-VIEW
Perspective from which a narrative is told.

9. POINT-OF-VIEW TERMS
FIRST-PERSON POINT-OF-VIEW: Told by one of the characters in the story; uses the pronoun “I”

10. POINT-OF-VIEW TERMS
THIRD-PERSON LIMITED POINT-OF-VIEW: The narrator, who is not a character in the story, tells the reader the thoughts of just one character at a time.
THIRD-PERSON OMNISCIENT POINT-OF-VIEW: The narrator is able to look into the hearts and minds of all characters at all times.

11. PLOT
The series of events that present and resolve a conflict.

12. Plot Development Terms
EXPOSITION: The background information that introduces characters, setting, and situation

13. Plot Development Terms
INCITING MOMENT: An event that occurs which initiates the main action and begins the primary conflict in the story

14. Plot Development Terms
RISING ACTION: Presents complications that intensify the primary conflict

15. Plot Development Terms
CLIMAX: High point of greatest intensity/interest; turning point in the story.

16. Plot Development Terms
FALLING ACTION: Events following the climax but before the main problem is resolved.
SPOILER ALERT

17. Plot Development Terms
RESOLUTION: Moment when the primary conflict created by the inciting moment is resolved

18. Plot Development Terms
DENOUEMENT: The “where are they now.” The author ties up any loose ends and answers any remaining questions.

19. Plot Development Terms
FORESHADOWING: The use of hints to give the reader insight about coming events.
HINT!

20. Plot Development Terms
SUSPENSE: Excitement or tension created as readers wait to find out how a story ends

21. CONFLICT TERMS
CONFLICT: The struggle (internal or external) between two opposing forces.

22. CONFLICT TERMS
EXTERNAL CONFLICT: Clash between a character and an outside force – with another person, object, or entity.
Man vs. Man, Man vs. Nature, Man vs. Society, etc.

23. CONFLICT TERMS
INTERNAL CONFLICT: A struggle within a character’s mind.
Man vs. Self

24. IRONY TERMS
SITUATIONAL IRONY: Occurs when the reader expects one thing, but the opposite occurs – the unexpected. A discrepancy between the expected result and the actual result